1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to the general field of earth moving equipment and in particular, to removably attached grader blade attachments that may be used in conjunction with the buckets commonly employed on front-end loaders, backhoes, and the like, to convert such vehicles into graders, snowplows or the like.
2. Description of Prior Art
There are many previously known grader attachments designed to enable a front-end loader, backhoe tractor or similar vehicle to be adapted to varying uses. Such prior art include U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,665,622 (Lamb); 2,488,695 (Upton); 4,255,884 (Williams); 2,986,826 (Timmons); 3,181,256 (Discenta); 3,469,330 (Hood); 4,189,854 (Haynes) and 2,644,251 (Smith).
Much of the prior art in the field of grader attachments consists of devices that are quite cumbersome to use, structurally complex and that necessarily require a great deal of time to install.
Some of the known grader blade attachment devices are intended to provide means that will avoid the necessity of having the vehicle driver dismount from the main vehicle installation and removal. Such a device is shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,255,884 (Williams). However, in using the device disclosed in the Williams patent, care must be taken in driving the bucket vehicle and the device has many small fitting spaces in which ice and snow and other debris can accumulate and from which such debris must be removed before the grader attachment can be connected to a bucket of the vehicle.
The grader attachment devices known in the past, either have not provided for angulation of the blade with respect to the bucket on which it is mounted, to permit changing of the angle of attack of the vehicle when used as a grader, or have not provided for easy changing of such blade angle.
The present invention solves the difficulties common to the prior art by utilizing a grader attachment that is free standing, and with a blade that is easily angulated with respect to a support frame. In addition, the present invention does not have the close tolerance spaces that can be jammed by snow, dirt and other objects.